The secretary and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared today before the House and Senate budget
committees. In the House hearing, Hagel noted cyber is an interagency
responsibility, with law assigning the Department of Homeland Security much of
the lead responsibility, but with of the national capability centered in U.S.
Cyber Command.

The secretary noted that Army Gen. Keith B. Alexander,
Cybercom commander and director of the National Security Agency, was scheduled
to testify on cybersecurity threats later in the day.

The interagency effort is going well, Hagel said, but he
added that private-sector concerns are mounting.

“The bigger issues -- the privacy issues, the business issues
-- [are] what I understand really led to the breakdown in your efforts here on
the Hill in trying to find compromise legislation last December,” the secretary
told the lawmakers. “That yet needs to be bolted together.”

Those issues complicate what the Pentagon can do, he added,
because the Defense Department is chartered to protect only national security
networks.

“When you veer out in the private sector, how far you can go,
what legal authorities you have, what laws govern that, are, I think, the large
area of some contested debate,” the secretary said.